The chief cause of tire failure is the wearing away of tire tread as a result of friction from moving contact with road surfaces. Having tire treads that are worn away or beginning to wear away is a dangerous problem for all motorists. The more durable and resistant to tread surface wear that a tire is, the safer the tire becomes. It has been discovered that the introduction of magnetic elements onto the surface of rubber reduces micro tears and fibrillation in the rubber, while at the same time increasing the heat transfer and durability of the rubber. However, simply adding magnetic elements to the master batch of the various components that make a tire does not work. Such a method of magnetic element incorporation is inefficient and does not allow for the localization of the magnetic elements on the surface of the tire tread. Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method of applying a magnetic element to a surface of a tire to increase the durability of the surface and to reduce surface wear. With the understanding that this need exists in tire technology, it will be appreciated that the art might benefit more broadly from a method a applying magnetic elements to other surfaces.